THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,320) Matthews’ Southern Comfort — “Colorado Springs Eternal”
A-side by Iain Matthews (see #173, 1,102) is a wonderful folk-rock/country number from the former Fairport Convention singer/guitarist.
Of the LP, Stranger writes:
Surprisingly the album does not suffer much from [Iain] Matthews’ minimal writing contributions . . . . What makes this album so timeless and enjoyable is the way it explores country music without deliberately trying to be country a highly commendable feat that many American bands were not able to achieve. Free from any phony southern twang, [Iain’s] fragile, emotionally-charged vocals enrich every song with a genuineness that is perfectly complemented by the warm, rural landscape that’s successfully captured by the band. Not only is this one of the first British country-rock records, but it is also an unrecognized benchmark for the entire then-burgeoning genre.
https://therisingstorm.net/matthews-southern-comfort-self-titled/
As to MSC, All Music Guide tells us that:
Comprising Matthews, Mark Griffiths (guitar), Carl Barnwell (guitar), Gordon Huntley (pedal steel guitar), Andy Leigh (bass) and Ray Duffy (drums), the newly formed band signed to EMI Records. The unit’s country-tinged sound proved to be an excellent forum for Matthews’ songwriting talents. In the summer of 1970, their second album, Second Spring reached the UK Top 40 and was followed by a winter chart-topper, ‘Woodstock’. Joni Mitchell wrote the single as a tribute to the famous festival that she had been unable to attend. Already issued as a single in a hard rocking vein by Crosby, Stills, Nash And Young, it was a surprise UK number 1 for Matthews Southern Comfort. Unfortunately, success was followed by friction within the band and, two months later, Matthews announced his intention to pursue a solo career. One more album followed after which the band truncated their name to Southern Comfort. After two further albums, they disbanded in the summer of 1972.
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/matthews-southern-comfort-mn0000390208#biography
John Tobler adds:
[Iain Matthews] joined Fairport Convention . . . but in early 1969, he left by mutual consent. . . . A successful management team of the period was Ken Howard & Alan Blaikely, who had worked with both Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, etc., and The Herd, and saw Ian as their next hit-making client. . . . His debut LP, while released as Matthews’ Southern Comfort was actually a solo album by Matthews, and was titled after “Southern Comfort’” a song by Sylvia Tyson (nee Sylvia Fricker) which would appear on his next LP . . . . “It wasn’t necessarily my intention to have a band called Matthews’ Southern Comfort. The album was going to be solo, and we were going to see what happened” he recalled in the mid-1970s. . . . The production of the LP is credited to Steve Barlby & Ian Matthews, and several of the songs [including “Colorado Springs”] are also written by Barlby, in fact a pseudonym for Howard & Blaikley. Matthews explained: “There wasn’t much of any direction to the album — Howard and Blaikley were new managers to me, and I was kind of feeling my way. They took me on the understanding that I was going to do some of their songs, and we kind of sold ourselves to the record company on that basis, but then I started to change my mind, because I didn’t particularly like their songs”.
liner notes to the CD reissue of Matthews’ Southern Comfort
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